During her feedback session at St Francis Bay Golf Club Executive Mayor brought up the rather divisive matter of the SRA (Special Rates Area). She confirmed that the matter is on councils agenda and they are taking advice as to how best to be written into the bylaws so as to ensure it caters for the whole of Kouga for other areas such a Paradise Beach have also expressed interest in going the SRA route. It had been suggested that empty plots not form part of the SRA but the Mayor confirmed that unfortunately they could not be excluded.
Looking back on past St Francis Today posts the subject of security camera installations in and around St Francis Bay stretch back a couple of years. With over 200 burglaries in the area over the past year the time has come for action to be taken. St Francis Property Owners association has called for an RFI to go out to find out what equipment and systems best suit St Francis Bay. Obviously this form of security does cost money and is one of the aspects of the “Save St Francis” campaign had costed in as part of the SRA. Whether it can go ahead without the SRA waits to be seen.
The Mayor touched on the recent unrest in Humansdorp and said it really is a matter of them wanting to make Kouga ungovernable rather than a lack of service delivery. A meeting was held with the community the following week and certain matters were explained and resolved.
A councillor recently made mention that the municipality will no longer be giving away black plastic bags. The Mayor neither confirmed nor denied this but went on to explain how the introduction of Wheelie Bins is on the agenda. It would though require households to purchase these but it really is the only way to go in respect of garbage disposal.
Ward 12 councillor Ben Rheeder followed the Mayor to explain the reason for the late night garbage pickups that disturb residents as some of these are occurring after nine at night. Rheeder explained this was due to the council not having had sufficient vehicles to carry out the work having being left with a depleted largely non serviceable fleet by the previous council. He stated things were improving but asked residents to be patient until the matter could be fully resolved with new vehicles.
Next on the agenda was the matter of a drop off zone. So much has been written on this subject but sadly the money allocated to it under the previous council was not used and so we will have to wait a while longer and hopefully see a drop off zone can finally be established. In the interim Rheeder asked that residents please not to dump garden refuse in the street but to please take your garden cuttings to the municipal yard where there are two skips available for bagged garden refuse.
Over grown plots were next up with Rheeder explaining that people ignore written request to clear plots particularly as they do present a fire hazard. A legal process will be followed in future. Let’s hope this does indeed happen.
More tomorrow including Q&A
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